From 1948 to 1993, the world chess championship had been administered by FIDE, the international chess federation. In 1993, World Chess ChampionGarry Kasparov split from FIDE and formed a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, meaning there were now two rival championships: the FIDE title, held by Anatoly Karpov, and the PCA title, held by Kasparov. Karpov and Kasparov had successfully defended their titles at the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 and PCA World Chess Championship 1995 respectively. From 1948 until 1996, World Chess Championships had followed a similar pattern: a series of qualifying tournaments and matches were held over more than a year, culminating in the Candidates Tournament. The winner of the Candidates tournament was the official challenger for the world title and would play the incumbent champion in a match for world championship. In 1997, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov proposed a completely new structure: a knockout tournament, consisting of two-game matches, with match tie-breakers using rapid chess and blitz chess if necessary. This format had been done before in tournaments such as Tilburg 1992-94, but never at the world championship level. In addition to the new format, it was proposed by Ilyumzhinov as a way to unify the two rival world titles. To do this, FIDE champion Anatoly Karpov and PCA champion Garry Kasparov were each to be seeded into the semi-finals. Kasparov did not want to defend his title under these circumstances and declined his invitation. The format was then modified to have FIDE champion Karpov seeded directly into the final.
Controversies
The advantages of the new format were:
It avoided a long cycle, and was all over in a month or so. This is could all be done in the one venue, it would not have the scheduling problems which had beset some previous world championship cycles. Each round could be played in 3 days.
More players could be included.
There were no special privileges for the incumbent champion or seeded players.
Opponents pointed out disadvantages of the format:
Short matches left too much to chance - the stronger player could blunder a game, and it would be difficult to recover from a bad start..
The rapid playoffs were also seen to be left too much to chance: strength in rapid chess is not the same as strength in chess with normal time controls.
These first two considerations, taken together, meant there was a very high chance that the best player would not win, or even that a complete outsider might win, opponents argued.
Some people felt that the tradition of the champion being seeded into the final should be preserved, so that a new champion can only be champion by defeating the old champion.
However, the scheduling of the match caused great controversy regarding the fairness of the contest: Anand was forced to play a fresh and prepared Karpov a mere three days after his exhausting performance at Groningen.
Prominent non-participants
Kasparov did not want to defend his title under these circumstances, and declined his invitation.
Vladimir Kramnik declined to play, in protest against Karpov being seeded into the final.
Participants
All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. 1 Kramnik declined participation on the grounds that Karpov's direct entry into the final was unacceptable. 2 Mohammed did not appear. Garry Kasparov, Gata Kamsky, and Zsuzsa Polgar declined participation in advance. Karpov as defending FIDE champion was seeded directly into the championship match. Of the 97 remaining participants, 68 entered the tournament in the first round, 28 in the second round and 1 in the third round.
Results, rounds 1-4
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Results, rounds 5–7
Championship match
The match was played over 6 games in Lausanne, Switzerland and ended in a 3-3 tie. Two rapid games were then played on January 9. Karpov won both, retaining his FIDE title.
